Senate passes eyewitness ID bill

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, got his eyewitness ID bill through the Senate this morning by a vote of 30-0. The bill would change the way eyewitness identification policies are used by law enforcement policies.

Ellis noted that mistaken identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in Texas and the U.S., and that Texas has had more DNA exonerations than any other state.

Approximately 75 percent of the 266 DNA exonerations across the country, according to the national Innocence Project, have been due to eyewitness misidentification. The figure is 85 percent of the 44 DNA wrongful convictions in Texas.

Ellis’ bill would require police departments to adopt written eyewitness identification policies based on best practices and would require the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas at Sam Houston State University to develop a policy and training materials for local law enforcement agencies. Relying on a 2008 Justice Project study, the senator noted that only 12 percent of Texas police departments had guidelines for conducting lineups.

Ellis filed a similar bill last session that also passed the Senate but died in the House.